So we're starting to put together stuff for the alpha.
This week we're putting together the list for the private alpha group (basically a lottery).
The exact day of the release of the alpha remains to be seen. Part of it depends on the weather up at Higgins Lake (where I'll be on vacation until early next week). If it rains, I'll be going home sooner which means the alpha will likely come out a bit sooner. If it's nice, I'll be staying a bit longer and the alpha will have a couple more days to bake. Kind of a reverse groundhogs day.
In either case, we plan to start making public to those interested in seeing the sausage factory that is game development our internal bug reports.
Those of you not used to a Stardock beta will find these quite...something I suspect. Most people don't realize how games are made.
A game, at the end of the day, is a piece of software that is tuned to be "fun" where fun is a debateable concept.
On a new property like Elemental, that means the software is taking a bunch of technologies that have been developed over the previous year or two and integrated together.
If a game takes say 3 years to make, 2.5 years of that time will be spent on the underlying tech. The lsat 6 months spent putting that tech together into a working "game". That is where we are now, taking the techs and integrating them together.
You'll be able to see all our foibles in the journals area starting next week as the good, bad, and ugly of the game's develpoment starts to come together.
So if you have any questions for the August FAQ, post them here.
Cheers!
I have a question steming from the mention by one of the devs (don't remember which) that fertile areas will grow with time, without any essence cost beside the initial one : Do you have any mechanics in mind to discourage, or prevent, the "smallpox" strategy? (Note : for those who don't already know, "smallpox" in Civ 1-3 consist of covering the map with tiny cities, as close to each other as possible.)
Of course if you need to pay essence for every new city this strategy is ridiculous, but it doesn't seem to be the case if a player can simply fill the grown fertile areas with tiny cities.
Surely the grow with time part means like lots of turns.
a few minor questions...
Considering the limitationg the average player has modding some things, how much base content is provided? Like, are there 5 diff weapons to arm soldiers with, or 30? 3 mount types or 10? And why only 2, very similiar, races?
If I preorder after the beta starts, can I join that day? or do I have to wait?
Can you be more clear on the difference between essence and regular magic? Is there a difference? Can I cast spells in battle often, or is that a gross waste of my limited essence?
Can there be cityless factions? Sort of like nomads/barbarian/hordes that encourage a more SRPG style of gameplay?
Can we disable magic/essence?
How big are the 64-bit maps? Can you show one off in a video/screenshot?
How much support will you give in providing tools to help in some of the rather rudimentary and basic levels of modding?
For example, in Civ4, even adding/changing Civs required going into text editors and a lot of cross checking of files to make sure it would work. Will Elemental help make it as easy as possible?
Just one thing to say:
Happy vacation, brilliant weather and have fun with the familie.
Yeah, it is what I stated in my prior post albeit with far less words.
I agree with Wintersong for the most part. I dont mind micro's if their graphics only. Otherwise, I think feature related content belongs in a regular expansion. Hey, Boogie...can we have both??
I don't think there will be micro-expansions for Elemental.
We're more likely to follow the Galactic Civilizations path of things where each expansion acts as a chapter to the story and also adds a ton of new features and such.
There! A spoiler! The campaign doesn't end the story!
Thanks, Frogboy. Knowing (and enjoying) the expansion packs for Gal Civ II, Elemental's will be great to be sure. Only doubt would be: would they beat the quality of Gal Civ II's? (quite a high bar there)
Good to know! I found out about GalCiv2 when all the expansions were already out. I wish it were the same way with Elemental. I am so impatient and hate waiting!
Will there be any plans to provide content or art packs? I could see that being worth some money just to have more options to include when creating units, customizing my sovereign, or to view in the terrain.
A bit off-topic, but how has the micro-expansion concept worked for Iron Clad/SD? It seemed like all the rage for a bit, but after Entrenchment was released the discussion with it died out (or at least became less public). Development time also seems to be a lot longer than anticipated.
Any chance at getting a sneak preview of a chapter of the book you (Frogboy) mentioned might come out around the same time?
Somewhere, some time ago, Frogboy said that city population will be limited based on its surroundings. The reason being population in Elemental doesn't come as much from births as from the remnant population of the world coming out of hiding and into your cities. Presumably this also means that having many cities clustered together will seriously limit how large each of those cities can become.
I'd actually like this very much - allowing you to choose between sparsely populated metropolises or tightly packed villages.
I just hope that we have some option to turn on and off expansion features. I don't remeber it being a problem in Gal Civ 2 (likely because it was not multiplayer, which is always where I seem to find what features annoy me. 'cause there is what the AI does, and what players do and when it doesn't coinside at all) But I know in Civilizations IV I wish I could turn off some warlords features while still keeping others and the Beyond the sword content
to answer the dev question: I WANT BIG MEATY EXPANSIONS!
Unless they add something pretty crazy in an expansion, that seems unlikely. Selectively enabling and disabling everything new adds an immense amount of complexity to making the whole thing work.
Just a thought. I may be completely wrong.It of course depends on what kind of changes are added. Obviously not everything can be optional.
Sounds good to me. More story and features! Hoody-hoo! Thanks FB.
Now get back to fishn' and vacation with the family! Turn off the PC. Step back.. step baaack.. yes, now walk away.. just walk awaaay.. go to the cooler and:
I too approve of this (and of course, we all know my approval is so very important ). I'd much rather see significant additions of features & content further apart than relatively frequent releases of micro-packs.
So I have a question for Brad. Im not sure if its ok to post questions not related to elemental, but I didnt see any guidelines, so ill just start out with a qoute from an article I read here:
http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/07/30/is-the-lack-of-game-digital-download-sales-info-hurting-the-indu/
"In a press release today, James Brooksby, the studio head of UK-based Doublesix said, "I do wish that all the platform owners would make their digital sales figures public. We feel this lack of transparency is hindering the development of these channels." He added, "As a developer trying to decide which platforms to develop for, as well as what type of games to make, we're currently in the dark regarding real sales performance for digital platforms and that makes it increasingly difficult to make realistic plans. I'd like to see some kind of verified sales charts on all digital systems to encourage more developers to support these channels and to help make sensible investment decisions."
I thought about it, and I think he may have a point. Though more and more companies are realizing the value of digital download services, wouldnt posting sales figures for games only further demonstrate its value? Companies usually publish retail sales figures, I find it odd that everyone is so tight lipped about it.
Any thoughts?
Huh? Not quiiiiite sure what you're getting at here...... well, the devs have been rather candid about most everythibg in the game so far (broad stroaks if not the details) and no-one has said a word about religions: it's like the thought hasn't come up.
Maybe you just thought you thought about it.
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